Women’s Fashions and Politics in Seventeenth-Century Spain: The Rise and Fall of theGuardainfante*

Abstract

AbstractWomen’s clothes were at the center of political debate in the Spain of Philip IV (r. 1621–65), and no garment inspired more controversy than the wide-hipped farthingale, or hoopskirt, known as theguardainfante. Considered scandalous with its reputation for hiding illicit pregnancies, theguardainfantewas banned in 1639. Nonetheless, theguardainfantebecame more popular than ever and turned into an enduring icon of Golden Age Spain during the reign of Philip’s second queen, Mariana of Austria (1649–65). Despite theguardainfante’s high level of visibility, most notably in court portraits by Diego Velázquez, very little is known about the historical experiences of the women who wore it. This article demonstrates that real women really did wear theguardainfantein a variety of contexts outside of portraiture and the theater. In Madrid and in cities throughout the Spanish empire, women of different stations and convictions participated in the political culture of their times by making, disseminating, and debating this controversial garment.